Im trying my first WW ingot session. I was on about my 3rd handful of WW and the melt started to look like it was clumping together. I stirred it around and it looked fine. I am using a stainless steel bucket that is kinda thin so Im trying to keep the heat low. The next handful of WW clumped immediately so I thought maybe the heat is too low? I turned the heat up a little and stirred again. It went away again but Im worried that the thin bucket is allowing too much heat transfer to melt the zinc WW's? Can anyone tell me whats going on?

Not likely. More likely you're just above the melting point of the lead wheel weight alloy and when you tossed more in it cooled the mix below the top end of the frozen slush range. Zinc weights should float to the top of the melt under that low temperature circumstance.

Best advice is get a casting thermometer. It'll tell you how far above or below critical you are. Lead melts at around 620°F and its alloys usually melt below that. Zinc melts at about 787°F, though a flux or being alloyed with something can cause melting points to depress. Just quickly pick out any wheel weight that floats.

ok. I have been looking for a thermometer at work (a lab) but have not gotten one yet. I put a rather large handful in to get started so the lead pooled for a few mins until there was enough to float the zincs. I didnt want to keep throwing in more and ruin my ww's. Thanks again Nick.

Be very careful adding "cold" metel to the melt as ANY moisture or liquid that gets under the surface will be an explosion of sorts

X10! Had some water in the bottom of a bucket of WW and did not realize it tell the water flashed to steam and blew molten lead out of the pot. Scared the heck out of me. I only got one small burn but it could have been a real disaster. I now dump the WW out on the garage floor and make sure they are dry.

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Seams like once we the people give what, at the time, seams like a reasonable inch and "they" take the unreasonable mile we can only get that mile back one inch at a time.

No spelun and grammar is not my specialty. So please don't hurt my sensitive little feelings by teasing me about it.

I finally got to finish casting my WW's tonight. Total take was 67 muffin ingots out of a full 5 gallon bucket. Im guessing about 2 lbs each? And just about half of a 5 gallon bucket of scrap left over. Next step... "BOOLITS"!

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